Psalm 73  Living Bible

73 How good God is to Israel—to those whose hearts are pure. ² But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff! My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. ³ For I was envious of the prosperity of the proud and wicked. ⁴ Yes, all through life their road is smooth!^[a] They grow sleek and fat. ⁵ They aren’t always in trouble and plagued with problems like everyone else, ⁶ so their pride sparkles like a jeweled necklace, and their clothing is woven of cruelty! ⁷ These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! ⁸ They scoff at God and threaten his people. How proudly they speak! ⁹ They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut through the earth.

¹⁰ And so God’s people are dismayed and confused and drink it all in. ¹¹ “Does God realize what is going on?” they ask. ¹² “Look at these men of arrogance; they never have to lift a finger—theirs is a life of ease; and all the time their riches multiply.”

¹³ Have I been wasting my time? Why take the trouble to be pure? ¹⁴ All I get out of it is trouble and woe—every day and all day long! ¹⁵ If I had really said that, I would have been a traitor to your people. ¹⁶ Yet it is so hard to explain it—this prosperity of those who hate the Lord. ¹⁷ Then one day I went into God’s sanctuary to meditate and thought about the future of these evil men. ¹⁸ What a slippery path they are on—suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction: ¹⁹ an instant end to all their happiness, an eternity of terror. ²⁰ Their present life is only a dream! They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were!

²¹ When I saw this, what turmoil filled my heart! ²² I saw myself so stupid and so ignorant; I must seem like an animal to you, O God. ²³ But even so, you love me! You are holding my right hand! ²⁴ You will keep on guiding me all my life with your wisdom and counsel, and afterwards receive me into the glories of heaven!^{[b] 25} Whom have I in heaven but you? And I desire no one on earth as much as you! ²⁶ My health fails; my spirits droop, yet God remains! He is the strength of my heart; he is mine forever!

²⁷ But those refusing to worship God will perish, for he destroys those serving other gods.

²⁸ But as for me, I get as close to him as I can! I have chosen him, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful ways he rescues me.